Anarkali of Arrah Movie Review

Anarkali of Arrah, based in Bihar is a story of a dancer and singer who earns by entertaining the local people at different functions with her erotic dance and songs.

The story of Anarkali of Arrah talks about the self respect of the Singer and Dancer where people easily misunderstand her erotic singing and dancing as a license to misbehave with her.

Although now this tradition of singing and dancing is not that common in Bihar, but once Bihar and UP was known for these kind of dance and singing program specially at marriages. News of violence in these programmes was common. Drunken audience attacking the dancers and humiliating her were like norms for these programmes.

Director of Anarkali of Arrah Avinash Das has correctly captured the era making the base of the story in Arrah, a town in Bihar. Swara Bhaskar as Anarkali becomes the queen of different hearts with her songs and dance. Sanjay Mishra as the Vice Chancellor is one of the admirers of Anarkali and attend her every performances. Pankaj Tripathi as Rangeela is the owner of the orchestra where Anarkali works and Rangeela manages all her programs.

The first half of the story talks about the background of Anarkali where her Mother was also in the same profession and one of the best singer and dancer of the town. Taking a clue from the tradition where drunken audiences started dancing with their guns, Anarkali’s Mother got shot dead by an audience by mistake. The first half also shows the life of Anarkali on and off Stage, he relation with Rangeela and different other aspect related to this tradition.

The story takes a turn when the VC (Sanjay Mishra) tries to humiliate Anarkali on stage in a drunken stage and got slapped by her in return. Making an issue of this, Anakrkali sent to jail and ultimately forced to leave the town as she was not ready to fulfil the indecent proposal of the VC. After struggling in a different city, Anarkali returns to Arrah and takes her revenge humiliating the VC in public.

If you are from Bihar, you can relate with the perfect depiction of the tradition, if not, you will enjoy the dance, song and the Bihari tone. Swara Bhaskar is awesome as Anarkali and takes the movie to a different height with her climax dance where she turns into Durga and Kaali.

Anarkali of Arrah is all about women power and conveying strongly that men should not take any women for granted. It’s also thought provoking and sad at the same time as how women are getting treated in our society.